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Tag Archives: magic

Once upon a time, people used portals to travel from lands to lands. Magic beans to see treasures our money could never amount to. Rabbit holes to see wonders our eyes wouldn’t even believe, and sometimes, they just wished upon a star to go to a land where problems go away like dusts. The bad news is, they are just stories we heard on a lullaby and in our bedtime. The good news is – we have our version too. We don’t need to cross worlds, we just have to look around. We just have to explore what’s ours.

I haven’t traveled the entire world yet, or the entire Philippines, or even the entire Cebu but what I’ve seen so far – I am convinced that there are more to wonders of those stories than we can actually imagine. I’ve just seen few things and I don’t know what to say, what more when I have the chance to see the rest.

Remember that troubled girl who chose to chase after the rabbit and fall down the hole? Maybe she ran away to escape the boredom of her world, or maybe she just wanted to have an adventure of her own. Like her we also need to unwind, go away from our comfort zones so that when we come back, we will appreciate more the things that really make us going.

It was last summer when we had the chance to go to Camotes, an island nearby Cebu, dubbed as The Lost Horizon, and famous for its white sand beaches. It would take almost 2 hours to get there, long enough to prolong the excitement but short enough to understand how to not like to exist in this world.

What excites us may be is the destination, that something paradisiacal awaits us but what really makes it a more remarkable, is when you enjoy your ride to get there, even if it is not via a magical carpet.

We had so many plans piled up so resting may be the last thing we wanted to do. Our first activity is to get to the beach, not to look for mermaids, but to enjoy the sand kissing our skin, to watch the reflections of our shadows through the calmness of the sea and to witness how we turned into silhouettes as the sun decided to set.

Next day we went to a local cave Timubo. All I saw is a small door then I was reminded of a place where prisoners are held, a dungeon. It really was not that creepy, it was an entrance to a world underground where we are free to shout out loud and listen to our echoes after echoes.

After that, we went to Lake Danao Park where I experienced my first kayaking, paddling left and paddling right, made me think maybe it’s not that hard to be a captain, except when you don’t have a hand but a hook.

I also tried horse back riding, like the knight of the kingdom conquering another kingdom, only that my horse is not that war oriented.

Then came my favorite part, we went to the islet in the lake. It’s very small you would wonder why it didn’t sink down. Well it won’t because it’s not floating in the first place. Size doesn’t matter, what does is it’s somewhere you want to go when you want a complete peace of mind. Think of it as a Neverland on Earth.

We spent 2 days in the island, 2 days away from the world where time runs with deadlines, where the sun barely shines through our glass panels and windows, where traffic noises are much louder than the chirping of birds, or the breezes of the sea, 2 days to make believe that even that 2 days out of 365 days, is enough to escape reality somehow and to experience the wonderful world we are in.

Summer is the perfect season to get away because the sun is at its brightest, the forests are in their greenest, the sky is at its bluest, and every where is at its hottest. So this summer, I, with my friends are planning to have an escapade. Good to know that we don’t need to cast a spell to travel from here to there, we just need to book a flight, and for the more patient, book a ferry, or even transport by land.

I think that every child deserves to have that time in his life when there is no line that separates from fantasy to reality until he realizes that nothing is more magical than the wonders of nature that reflect through our eyes – more than any fairy tale lands there may be, until he decides to bid good bye to fairy god mother’s wand, until he blows his pixie dusts into the air , until he knows when to spill his magic beans, until he’s tired of chasing that white rabbit, and up until he falls asleep wishing upon that same star – because once upon a time and until now, the real magic is when and how your heart believes that everything that matters in life is far more important than anything in this world.